The soaring price of wholesale electricity helped British Energy pump up pre-tax profits to £846 million for the year to the end of March, although persistent shutdowns meant the nuclear generator produced less power over the period than it originally hoped.

As it unveiled its first set of full-year profit numbers since it was relisted last year, British Energy said it already had fixed price contracts in place accounting for nearly three-quarters of its planned energy output for the current financial year.

The group, which joined the FTSE 100 in January, said it would be paid an average of £43 per megawatt hour to generate electricity, a 34 per cent increase on last year's rate.

Reinvented via a crunch financial restructuring after it collapsed under the weight of its debts, British Energy was paid £32/MWh for electricity last year.

With energy prices on the wholesale markets soaring over the past three years, that itself represented an increase of nearly third on the previous year.

Bill Coley, the chief executive, said today: "British Energy has made significant progress over the past year. Largely due to higher realised prices, the group has shown significant improvement in profitability and cashflow."

Analysts had pencilled in profits of about £855 million.

Regular shutdowns at some of its again nuclear reactors, particularly in Hartlepool, were responsible for British Energy producing less power than it had hoped.

Mr Coley, whose group stands to benefit from the Government's renewed commitment to nuclear energy, said British Energy would be investing between £250 million and £300 million in its eight nuclear power stations this year.

Last year British Energy invested £283 million on its power plants.

He also said British Energy would be pursuing further life extensions for the sites, which include Dungeness in Kent.

Dungeness has already had its life extended by 10 years to 2018.

Shares in British Energy closed last night at 687.5p, valuing the nuclear group at more than £3.9 billion.

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